DIY Speakers, worth the hassles?

Hi Ake:
DIY speakers are NOT created equal. There is a bigger difference from speaker to speaker in all DIY stuff than even retail. That is, some of it stinks and some of it is great. That being said, I think the returns on DIY speakers are greater than your figures (Say will $1500-2K DIY speaker kit are as good as 5-10K speakers? Or will the sub 1K kit be as good as 2-3K speakers), IF*! you do a good job. You are leveraging your $$$ with your time and knowledge.

If you want to do DIY speakers the best single advice I can think of is take your time in choosing a project. Spend about a month at the Madisound.com speaker building forum following the discussion. Some of the people over there have their own web sites and offer DIY kits. (Dave Ellis, Dennis Murphy, John K,...and others). Take a look at their sites too. Don't try to do to much or design your own crossover the first time out. Beware of folks who talk as though a computer program is going to design a good speaker for you. When you have decided on a project post it over at the Madisound forum and ask for advice or comments. After about a month over there you will have figured out who to listen to. You have to make a couple good initial choices to have a good first attempt DIY speaker and/or trust someone else to make them for you.

If you like single drivers do the same thing at the Single driver forum(www.melhuish.org)

I have had very nice results doing clones of speakers from Northcreek. www.northcreekmusic.com That is another site I would read completely before doing DIY. They have some very nice kits too. I've worked with the "Rhythm" speaker over at Northcreek with very good results.

I'm going to mess around with a few single driver things. You might take a look at Twl's Lowther project (he posts here) if you are interested in that direction.

Good luck.

I remain,

Just returned from the Summer "Chicago Horn Bash" and had the chance to spend many hours talking to Dan Wiggens of Adire Audio. [I kept the conversation on audio/speakers as much as possible through dinner without going off the "you're driving me nuts buddy" meter.] Actually, he is a nice guy and really didn't seem to mind.

But the things he emphasized were that the cost of the drivers is just not the thing to focus on and is not usually going to make or break the sound. It's the total package. Focus on the crossover & enclosure and even the room you have. Account for room (your particular room)gain in your XO. Don't rely on published specs. You have to measure your drivers in the box you are going to use. Also, don't forget the acoustic roll-off of your drivers in your enclosures when deciding on the electrical filter you want to use. He also is not concerned with phase problems of high order filteres. He thinks the problems are overemphasized and that you should go for flat frequency response and dynamics. You have to compromise somewhere in speakers and he thinks you lose a lot if you go to first order so as to minimize phase problems. There are som nice short technicl papers on speaker building at his Adire Audio site if you have't been there.

Had a chance to listen to his $300 Kit HE10.1 speaker for the first time and it is very good. He is changing it to linearize the motor strength (BL). He has a new patient so it should get better. If you are looking for a cheapee you could do lots worse.

Some of this isn't exactly late breaking news but it's fresh on my mind after yesterday and though I'd pass it on.

It was a great time. Bruce Edgar was there too and talked for a couple hours on horns. Try to make it next year of you have a chance.

I remain,